


Troubled Water

by kanadka, smokingbomber



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Betrayal, Gen, Time Loop, Time Travel, Uneasy Allies, Wacky Implausible Physics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 12:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21374044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanadka/pseuds/kanadka, https://archiveofourown.org/users/smokingbomber/pseuds/smokingbomber
Summary: After the Silver Crystal is reformed, and the Moon Princess is revealed, and Zoisite dies, Kunzite returns to dispatch the rest of the Sailor Scouts and seize what he believes is rightfully the property of the Dark Kingdom. He attacks Jupiter, Mars, and Venus without even an afterthought. So why does he tell Mercury to stand aside?He's learnt not to attack her - at least not in the same way.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 16
Collections: Senshi & Shitennou Reverse Mini Bang 2019, Smokingbomber Arted These





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FadesInTheSun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FadesInTheSun/gifts).

> Return of the annual Senshi & Shitennou Mini Bang challenge! The lovely and talented FadesInTheSun had the fantastic idea to depict more unusual Senshi & Shitennou matchups, so here's a collaboration from [Fades](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FadesInTheSun/pseuds/FadesInTheSun) (Fades' [art tag here](https://fadesinthesun.tumblr.com/tagged/fadesinthesun-art)), the always astounding [smokingbomber](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smokingbomber/pseuds/smokingbomber) (SB's [art tag here](https://blog.smokingbomber.com/tagged/smokingbomber-art)), and yours truly. :D
> 
> Once again a huge shoutout to our modly wonders at [ssrevminibang @ tumblr](https://ssrevminibang.tumblr.com/) for the great job they did, and a gigantic thanks to R for the beta and F for infos and all-around awesomeness. ❤️❤️❤️

It had always been a long shot. Sailor Mercury knew this, after both Jupiter - _and_ Mars - had tried and failed to bring down the force imprisoning them. What it was made of, Mercury couldn't say. Certainly Kunzite wasn't letting on. Kunzite simply had extended his hands and they, along with Sailor Moon, were locked in some sort of black dome, shrinking further and further.

If it absorbed Mars and Jupiter's powers, surely it would absorb hers too? But she couldn't just let him win - she had to _try!_

Mercury raised her own hands, and drew on her own power, and –

(In retrospect, that was probably her first error.)

– and then nothing.

Just swirling black. No one around her. She extended her arms out and tried to feel - no air, no fog. At least she could see her fingertips, which implied there was a light source somewhere, but _where_ was anyone's guess. She took a step - she was on something solid (she thought) - but could see nothing further than her own boots. She kicked out and something looked like it sloshed back. Was she standing in an oil slick?

"Hello?" she called out, a bit more tremulously than she would have liked. No echo - she heard the voice from her own throat; thickly, like being underwater. Then this space was either very big, or it absorbed all light and sound.

Just like Kunzite's demonic dome had absorbed Jupiter's and Mars' powers. Too strange, thought Mercury. Kunzite... what sort of powers are those? She had assumed he was too strong, but maybe it was something else entirely.

Well, thought Mercury, no time like the present to get to work. She could breathe, and she could see, and she could move - she should count her blessings. She retrieved her visor and her hand computer, just in time for her to hear a second voice.

"What's that? Give it to me!"

Out of reflex she darted aside, neatly sidestepping Kunzite's lunge forward. If it was oil or water she stood in, it didn't hinder her movements like she'd expect. But Kunzite's cape swung and resettled around his ankles with the grace of underwater motion. His hair did, too. He prepared again for a second strike.

"Don't you dare," she said. (Her voice sounded a bit more vocal, now. It had something to bounce off of - Kunzite himself. She could see the ripples of the sound waves in the visor... curious. _Analysis running_, claimed the visor.)

"Look what you've done, Sailor," he said, warning.

"What I've done? What _I've_ done?!" The nerve of him!

"These new powers of yours," continued Kunzite. "You've never had anything like them before. So why unveil them now?"

"Don't say you're upset I'm not playing by the rules," Mercury retorted, "or need I remind you that you joined your Dark Kingdom friend out of nowhere. If that's not a dirty tactic of an ambush -"

"You Sailor Scouts keep adding to your ranks! I hardly think it's unexpected for us to do the same - now _give me that!_"

Mercury darted again, and Kunzite raised his hands, and she raised hers, and –

– and then there was light, bright and shocking, and sound, a sudden rush of it. Mercury looked around her. She was still transformed - there was that, at least. This place... it looked like a sports arena of some sort. No, she recognised it now. This was the ice rink. Nearby, there was a room, its door flung wide open.

Kunzite had spotted the people inside the room first and ducked out of sight behind the door. She quickly followed. "Find your own hiding place," he hissed. "There's no room here for you."

"Then _make some room_," Mercury snapped. She elbowed him in the gut. "I don't trust you enough to let you out of my sight, and I don't see what your problem is."

Kunzite was indignant and prepared a retort, but someone else's words shut him up. "You keep seeking to interrupt! You know, if it weren't for such interruptions, we might have the Silver Crystal by now -"

Mercury had been looking at Kunzite. He had not spoken, but that was doubtless his voice.

"Somehow, I doubt it! If you're a warrior, you should fight like one. Instead you conscript others to fight your battles for you."

There was a growl, and someone in a long, black cape and hat flew out. Hot on his heels was Kunzite himself.

_Tuxedo Mask_, thought Mercury, _is working with Kunzite._

"What is your goal?" she said, turning to him. "If you wanted to trap us so your precious Zoisite could get him - apparently he's already yours!"

Kunzite could only shake his head, agape and confused. He turned to Mercury. "This is a trick," he said, "and I greatly dislike being deceived. I won't have it!"

He raised his arms to attack, and Mercury raised hers to defend, and –

– swirling darkness again.

This time, Mercury was ready. _Analysis running on transition_, read the visor, in her upper left vision.

Kunzite, too, had seemed to catch on, and in a flash of violet light a sharp-looking scythe appeared in his hand. He held it aloft like a blade. "Enough of this," he cried, and leapt forward.

Mercury tucked and rolled out the way. "If you don't stop," she said, "I'll make it happen again!" She held out her hands in warning.

Well. She had no idea how. But she'd figure something out. And in the meantime, she wasn't above a good bluff.

Kunzite either had terrible instincts, or good reflexes, and so he held up his own –

– daylight again. 

_Analysis complete_, read the visor, and gave her a screen read out. With a date. 

In the future.

The more she read, the more she began to put together what had happened.

Kunzite left her alone for a moment. When she finished reading, she saw what had occupied his attention. Mamoru - Usagi's friend Mamoru (well, friend was perhaps pushing it, though Usagi seemed very upset) - and then she saw herself. Odd feeling. There was something distinctly _wrong_ about it all.

"Disorienting, isn't it," muttered Kunzite. He turned to her. "This is an alternate universe, isn't it. This doesn't happen."

Not quite. There was a significant temptation to stay quiet. No need to volunteer information to her enemy, after all. But there was a reason this happened, and she needed his help. "There's some sort of resonance," she explained. "I don't know how - I don't know _what_ you did -"

"It was hardly _my_ fault!" blurted Kunzite.

"- it _was_, and keep your voice down, you're drawing attention -"

For the other Mercury had looked over, and - _smiled?_

Mercury held up her hands, trying to placate him, trying to shut Kunzite up, but of course he took it as an attack, and he raised his hands again. She sighed, and prepared herself –

– for the rush of darkness.

"What _is_ this infuriating place!" Kunzite shouted. He swung his arms wide, windmilling and flailing, and got entangled in his cape, which he flounced aside. The _least_ graceful backstroke. It looked simultaneously dramatic and idiotic and Mercury let out a huff of a laugh, suppressing it as best she could in the hopes Kunzite didn't notice.

He did, once his hair resettled onto his shoulders, like falling through water. "I will _have answers_," he snarled. He stepped forward and something beneath his boot rippled.

"I told you, there's been a resonance," she said. She watched the ripples extend outward, on and on. They did not bounce back. Just waves outwards, like the sea. "Whatever your powers are - however they interact with mine - it's pulled us into this place. This... part of the universe."

"Part of the _universe_," repeated Kunzite. His tone made it obvious he did not believe her.

"I don't know why you're so surprised!" Mercury spat back. "Your Dark Kingdom ways - who even knows where your lair is? It's not on Earth, that's for certain! Aren't you used to travelling in between? We see the other generals disappearing all the time into some dark portal when you've decided your demons can finish the fight because _you_ never stick around!" Tuxedo Mask had had a point.

The dig did not escape him. "Your insults, Sailor, do not amuse me," Kunzite said.

"This space," said Mercury, "is a non-continuous hyperspace. This dimension is not connected to our world by a three-dimensional axis, but on a two-dimensional axis with the connection made through the opposite coordinate, in two directions, through the space of zero dimensions."

"And every time I try to put you out of my misery -"

"You're only making the resonance worse," she said. "That energy you put into it makes the transition happen, and whatever your intent is, it shifts it out of phase just enough that we don't get back to where we came from."

"That we go to an alternate universe, you mean," he said.

"No," said Mercury. "That's... that's our universe." She sighed. "In the future."

Kunzite glared. "Well, I'm thrilled to know you continue to be an ever-present thorn in my side," he snapped. He paused and was silent. After a moment's meditation, he asked, imperious, "Can you get us home?"

Mercury, taken aback, sputtered, "As if I would work with an agent of the Dark Kingdom!" But it wasn't the worst thing. "It cannot be done without your assistance," she said. According to the calculations. Which... she was only half-sure about, without having double-checked.

"I refuse to believe you're the only one who can plot us a way out of here," he said.

"Your ill-gotten powers are what got us into this mess! If there were any justice, you'd rot here."

"But you _need_ me to get back," he drawled.

Like it or not, Mercury _did_. And he needed her to get back. Probably. 

Maybe.

All the generals had been popping in and out of similar-looking portals for quite some time now. It was possible he could get himself home and strand her here. She wouldn't mention that.

"Don't forget you need me to plot you a course out of this place," said Mercury.

"Oh, certainly," said Kunzite, a silky, lofty tone in his voice. Then he smirked, and, lifting his hands, said, "Enjoy eternity, silly girl."

Mercury had the barest amount of time to throw up her own hands and try to block, but what precise power he used felt different, somehow –

– light, again. 

But this time, she was alone. If the date she saw in the corner of her visor was correct, and it probably was, this was the past.


	2. Chapter 2

When Kunzite next opened his eyes, all was black and still. Had he lost her? He hoped he'd lost her.

It was dark around him but a familiar dark - this looked like the Dark Kingdom. There was no swish to his cape when he walked, no ethereal flow to the set of his clothes, no tingle at his scalp where the hair bounced with a chillingly unnatural wateriness. There were the walls that looked uncomfortably alive, and there was the main chamber to Queen Beryl's throne. This path he followed.

There was nobody there. With a snap of his fingers, he lit the great standing torches, one by one. But the throne itself was empty. Kunzite proceeded closer to inspect it. Dust, he realised. A thick layer of dust. No one had sat there in quite some time.

It didn't quite smell right anymore. It smelled stale.

Where was Her Majesty? Where was... anyone?

Behind the throne, where they had always been forbidden to go, lay a set of steps. Kunzite had never really wanted to go there himself; there was something... strange there. A pungent stink of rotten meat, a feeling of prickling unease. There was something not-quite-right that lurked behind Her Dark Majesty's throne.

But Beryl was no longer there, and Kunzite was starting to wonder whether that force that had been locked away behind her throne was part of the reason why. He took to the stairs with caution, but the eerie feeling he remembered never came upon him.

There, in a massive amorphous overhang that looked vaguely like a grotesque skull, was a chamber, where Queen Metalia - she who Kunzite was forbidden to speak of, to gaze upon, to know - resided.

And it was vacant.

This was far worse. Metalia had been there, knew Kunzite, because Beryl had needed more energy to wake her. She needed energy, and the Silver Crystal.  In return, Metalia was the source of their infernal powers. Kunzite opened his hands again, just to be sure, and materialised a sphere of energy above his palms. He dissipated it a second later. Well. Evidently he could still access his powers.

Had Beryl succeeded?

There was a pathway out of there to Earth. The long way, he knew. That blasted sailor brat was right about one thing: he and all the generals _had_ been using them to drop in on Earth business.

It suddenly struck him. The other generals – where was Zoisite? Did they rule Earth, then?

He took the quickest route he knew out, though it was still a long way walking, and walking, and walking. Deserted. 

Not quite deserted. He did find one person – Jadeite, trapped under the ice, locked into Eternal Sleep, his face paralysed in a rictus of horror.  A relevant mood, thought Kunzite, who never had so large a space feel so claustrophobic.

I have to get out of here, he thought, and found the exit, made himself a portal, and plunged through to Earth.

–

Damn that Kunzite. Mercury shouldn't have bothered telling him anything! He clearly intended her to suffer alone in the darkness. Betrayal was second-nature to the Dark Kingdom – she supposed she considered herself fortunate enough that he failed.

Once her eyes had adjusted to daylight, Mercury found herself at the cram school where she was attacked. _I thought it shut down after that whole demon incident_, she thought. But there it was, open for business.

And there –

Footsteps. She ducked around the corner and peeked out.

There was her former self, walking into the school, closely followed by Usagi – dressed as a nurse, oddly enough – and Luna.  "I don't trust her," Luna was saying. "Something's not quite right about that girl... some weird readings... she may be an agent of the Dark Kingdom."

_I haven't even become Sailor Mercury yet_, she realised. (Also, that Luna thought Mercury could be a spy. A less heartening thought.)

She slipped inside after them and watched as her younger, former self tried to withstand the attack in the cram school. The demon teacher shoved her face up against the machine, tried to pull her energy, but it just wouldn't budge.

Meanwhile, the visor was busy running calculations. _A different kind of attack_, Mercury analysed. This was another kind of resonance. Only this caused the attack to glance off her like a shield. _That would be handy_, thought Mercury. If they had some sort of shield that could enable them to withstand any threat the Dark Kingdom might make.

Usagi arrived, then transformed. Ami too transformed – for the first time, had she ever really been that young? that naive? – and the two of them brought down the school. They evidently didn't need Mercury's help. All the better – if Mercury could study this resonance, maybe she could make something that could protect them all. She'd have to keep a close eye on the villains to get as much data as possible.

And moreover, she _couldn't_ involve herself. If this were the past, she had never involved herself there to begin with. Then, she couldn't do so a second time.

Unfortunately, when the demon died, Jadeite was nowhere to be found, and without a way back into the Dark Kingdom, Mercury was stranded.

–

Earth...

Kunzite whirled around. It didn't look like this, before, surely? There were crystal spires on the landscape, no sunlight – if he squinted long enough at the sky it sparkled in a wholly artificial way – and the horizon seemed to drop off.

Then Kunzite _was_ right – this was an alternate universe.

"You, there!" he heard, and turned. Four guards in some sort of dark military uniform were upon him, and before he could make much of a getaway, four others had converged on his position. They bound his wrists behind his back with some sort of mechanism – it wasn't metal, but it wasn't plastic, either, but it felt man-made and he couldn't wriggle out of it (not for lack of trying) – and frogmarched him away.

The tallest spire drew higher and higher as they approached the threshold of a gate. One guard had words with a staff member and the shimmer from the skies dropped down to the ground. "Come on, walk," said the guard behind him, shoving him forward.

It was a palace, there was no mistaking the regal feel of the place. Massive art and murals on the walls, sculpted ceilings, the faint trickle of a waterfall somewhere. Some indoor courtyard, no doubt. The columns skylit a glittering white chatoyancy. Moonstone, Kunzite thought, or ivory, or pearl or opal. Some precious stone.

The room they left him in was elaborately decorated with lavish curtains and rugs, and furnished with high-backed plush-looking chairs of a deep green velvet. In one, by a heavy marble writing desk, sat a single man in a dark dress uniform. "Leave us," said the man.

He stood, and looked Kunzite over with a firm gaze in his dark eyes.

"Sire," replied the guards. They released Kunzite's wrists, bowed, and shut the door behind them on their way out. 

The man’s hair was dark, cropped short, though not quite in a military fashion. He was handsome, too, with broad shoulders. _Sire_, they called him. He might be the ruler of this place.

"I don't know how this can possibly be," said the man, "but you're quite lost, Kunzite."

He glared. _How could this man know my name_, he wondered.

"But you've surprises left in you yet," the man continued. "You didn't use the ancient space-time corridor, but you didn't use the space-time pathway to or from Nemesis either - I would have known if you did. Rather, _she_ would have known."

Kunzite narrowed his eyes. "'She', being -"

"Mercury staffs the computers and monitors the readings most days." Kunzite's expression soured, but the man didn't remark upon it or take offence. "If you arrived from any of the locations she monitors, she would have picked it up. And if you arrived from somewhere not exactly... legal, you would have had assistance. Instead, you wandered here on your own. Well. At least you're not working _with_ the Black Moon Clan. You see, she said you'd do this, all those years ago, but she never told me how."

Slowly, Kunzite approached the window. The man let him. "What... what year is this?" he asked, gazing out at the spires.

"It's the 30th Century," replied the man.

Blast that Mercury. She was right all along. This was _their_ universe. Just not their timeline. "Then," Kunzite reasoned, "the Dark Kingdom - we must have lost."

It was too bright and beautiful out there. The city looked stately, palatial. Peaceful. Beryl would not have been the architect of this. Neither would Metalia.

"Metalia's been dead for centuries," said the man, "and so has Beryl. Do you... you really don't remember me, do you?"

The man drew closer. Slowly, making no attempt to mask the sound of his footsteps, so that Kunzite wouldn't balk. When he had reached the windowsill, by Kunzite's side, he reached out with an immaculate gloved hand.

Kunzite held his breath.

But all he did was brush the bangs off Kunzite's high forehead. Kunzite could not say why he tolerated this.

"My name is Endymion," he said. "And once, forever ago, you served me."

"You're – you're not..." The crescent moon sigil on his lapels was clearly visible from this distance. "You're not an agent of the Dark Kingdom, are you," murmured Kunzite.

The man – Endymion – suffered him a smile. "You kidnapped me once, and for a time, I was, but not by choice. I don't blame you. You too were kidnapped. You don't serve them by choice either."

"I have pledged my _life_ until I die, and every lifetime thereafter, to the service of Her Dark Majesty Beryl," sputtered Kunzite.

"No," said Endymion. "You pledged your life and your lifetimes and your service to _me_."

He shook his head. "I – I couldn't have –"

"It was a very long time ago," said Endymion. "Deeper than Beryl." He stepped closer, and there was almost a sneer on his lips. "Go on, examine your innermost thoughts," said Endymion silkily. "You know you want to, because it doesn't all add up, because you're already somewhat put off by Metalia – and why do you think that is, Kunzite? So give in to your doubts – question it a little..."

"Never," gasped Kunzite, and he staggered back, then whirled and made for the door to burst out of the room.

There were guards staffed by the entrance, so he spun around and ran the other way. His damned boots were loud on the tile floors – surely the guards would catch up with him.

Somewhere nearby there was the trickling of the waterfall. Unthinking, he made for it and nearly sped past a woman with long, bluish hair. A lighter blue. She looked older.

He skidded to a stop in front of her. "Mercury?" he asked. In a thousand years, she had barely aged five.

"No," replied the woman, "Neptune. Who are you?"

He could _feel_ the blood drain from his face. By Beryl's grace, he thought, was there one for every star in the sky?

A further thought occurred to him. There were only four generals. They couldn't possibly take on them all.

Neptune paid no note to his turmoil. "Mercury's over in the north wing. Take a left by the statue of the Serene Family."

The Serene Family was a massive glittering monument. Endymion, he recognised; the small child, he did not. But the face of Endymion's queen, he did, because he'd had dreams of someone who looked almost exactly like that. There was fire and war, and in the midst of it, this woman – Queen Serenity – with her Silver Crystal, held back the tide.

The hallway was long but only one door was open. Mercury sat within, at a desk, hunched over what looked like a keyboard, in front of three transparent screens dotted with text and markings. "You," Kunzite yelled.

Mercury looked up. She scooted back in the chair and gave him an appraising look. In a moment her facial expression went from surprised to intrigued. "Isn't that interesting!" she said, with the air of someone who had solved a particularly engrossing but utterly mundane problem. "You know, I had always wondered..."

"_You_ did this to me!" he bellowed.

Mercury gave a shrug. "Actually, you did it to yourself," she said. "Let me give you a word of advice. When I tell you about the prisoner's dilemma, do yourself a favour and _listen_. Alright, Kunzite?"

"I – I will _not_ have this insolence from you, I will not have it!" yelled Kunzite, apoplectic. He raised his hands, readying a strike.

"No, of course you won't," said Mercury patronisingly. She smiled and stood, and obediently raised her own hands, and –

– and everything went dark.

–

It was a risk, but she did it anyway – detransforming to become Ami Mizuno once again. The universe didn't shake and fall apart, so she supposed having two Amis in one timeline wouldn't hurt. If it did, she would have felt its effects already.

As twilight fell, she watched Usagi take Ami out for milkshakes, once everything was said and done at the cram school. This gave her exactly enough time to get back to the apartment and grab a few things. A change of clothing; some food, a little money.

_I always did wonder where this bag went_, she thought. Now she knew. Everything was making more and more sense, and the pieces were starting to slide into place.

She still needed somewhere to stay, however. Toyoko, she thought. The hotel chain hired mostly women; they might look the other way at a young girl trying to book a room. Toyoko wasn't frugal but it wasn't expensive, and there was one four train stops away from the closest library.

Ami spent the next three days there, reading in the library and returning home to the hotel room. Her alternate self was the one with the library card – Ami would have remembered if she had lost it – so the best she could do was haunt the stacks in the physics and metaphysics sections. Between that, and the calculations she did from her miniature computer, she began to study the resonance in greater detail, working off her readings from the miniature computer and her visor.

It was a slow slog, because none of what she needed was in a published book and had to be mathematically deduced. No one did formal scientific research on senshi powers, of all things. But she figured it out: it was the bubbles. That bubble spray attack of hers had a dual purpose: defensive, and offensive. The latter she didn't use often enough to hone, but it must have activated automatically in the presence of Kunzite's powers. His ability to manipulate force fields and the fabric of space-time had somehow _combined_ with her ability, where it had only neutralised Jupiter's and Mars'. That dark underwater-like world they kept finding themselves in was an encapsulated space of his making, closed in on itself, contained within a bubble of _her_ making. Small wonder she didn't catch the iridescence at radial infinity, but it had been too dark to see anything, even with the visor.

On the fourth day after the incident in the cram school, Ami recalled, Usagi had taken her out window-shopping in Harajuku. This was exactly enough time for her to get to Jadeite's Clock Look store. _He always did have the same style_, Ami thought. Get something that wound people up, harvest energy, call it a day.

If she was correct, his manipulation of time might be enough to spark her own resonance.

But Jadeite hardly appeared to assist the demon in disguise. She scanned him but there was nothing of what it was with Kunzite. Whatever powers Jadeite had weren't anything like Kunzite's. Patience, thought Ami. If this were something that only worked with Kunzite, and she had to wait months until he first appeared, she'd go mad. And broke.

The following day she snuck into the store before opening and tucked herself away beneath a counter. Finally, some luck: the demon posing as the shopkeeper revealed herself and Jadeite appeared. If she could only figure out how Jadeite was moving back and forth into the Dark Kingdom, she could follow him, but he seemed to dissolve into view without making much of a portal. _You lazy jerk_, she thought to herself.

"Everything is going according to plan," said the demon.

"Excellent," said Jadeite. "Perhaps one or two more days, then. Queen Beryl will be most pleased with the energy you collect."

"And are you pleased, too?" the demon asked.

Jadeite nodded, polite if a bit stiff. "Ramua, your time manipulation is most skillful. But you'll need to be able to reallocate the energy you steal somehow, unless you count energy manipulation in your arsenal as well."

So it had been the demon's skills all along, and Jadeite had done nothing at all. Lazy jerk was too right.

"All of the energy will be stored here in the great clock," Ramua added, her face contorting in a grotesque sneer.

In the clock... It was true, the face of it was faintly and ethereally glowing.

An idea struck her.

"You will want to be careful," added Jadeite. "There are two Senshi now. They could come at any moment."

"I'll be ready," said Ramua.

Ami wasted no further time and transformed. "Did you hear something?" said Ramua. Jadeite made no reply. "We're not open yet," Ramua called out, in the shopkeeper's falsely bright voice.

Ami – _Mercury_ – remained where she was, beneath the counter.

Follow the energy, she realised. It would be a straight line to the Dark Kingdom. As it should be; Jadeite's energy harvest had to go _somewhere_, and he was unlikely to take anything more than the most direct route. 

The demon opened the door in the cabinet of the great clock and stepped through.  Quickly – the door was fast closing – Mercury tiptoed across the store to the great clock herself.

Inside was just as unsettling as it was the first time around. At least then she'd had Sailor Moon at her side. Now Mercury was alone, and the swirling vision that was the space she'd entered was surreal and unwelcoming, the colours melting in a way that felt nearly synesthetic. She activated the visor, found the trail of energy, and began to walk.

On and on and on she walked without seeing a single person – not Ramua, and not herself or Sailor Moon, either. (By this time, Ramua was probably busy with the two of them.) The visor and computer would have alerted her if there were anyone around but there was just energy, a long thick trail of it, fogging a path through the space which grew darker, and darker...

The space gradually changed, revealing something a little more horrifying.

The walls... the walls looked _alive_. That haunting glow about the place had increased, either because of the energy Jadeite had stolen or from the pulsating, amorphous energy field in front of her, a lurid bloodred mass of what-couldn't-be-cloud. It formed structures like bones or vines, skulls and grotesque caricatures, mixing and melding.

But the energy continued to lead forward, cascading like a waterfall into a swirling recess of a pit where something darker lurked.

_Child_, she heard in her mind. _You are a stranger here. You …_ It fished deeper... _Senshi_ ...

Suddenly, the voice thundered and cajoled at the same time. _INTRUDER – come forward, dear girl – ALERT THE GENERALS – you have so much life – KILL HER – so much energy, we can taste it, we can touch it –_

It was not Beryl. It was much worse than Beryl.

Mercury's visor and supercomputer had no information on this horror, but it couldn't be good. She doubled back – there were stairs there; they had to lead somewhere good. She raced up but the voice would not cease. _GET HER – I could help you_, it yelled, _GIVE ME HER ENERGY – you could know everything, experience eternity, and you like knowledge, don't you?_

Wasn't that what Kunzite had said? 'Enjoy eternity'?

At the top of the stairs, blocking her path, were three generals.

"That's..." said Zoisite, for once lost for words.

"The new one," Nephrite replied. It was so strange to see Nephrite alive. Whatever kindness had been in him by the time he had fallen had not yet appeared, however. He looked at Mercury like a particularly useful pawn he could capture to vault himself to a higher ranking among the four.

_DESTROY HER_, chanted Metalia, _ah, an ambition – medical school? – MAKE HER PAY – why, you'll hardly have that following Sailor Moon all the time – DRAIN HER!_

"Mercury," murmured Zoisite. He folded his arms and grinned, impish. "How many of them do you think there are, anyway? Care to place bets?"

"I don't wager with parasites," Nephrite snapped.

"So touchy," said Zoisite. "Well, however many there are, I'm sure our queen would love to collect this one, especially when she waltzes right in the front door."

_ it would be so much distraction – LET YOUR LIFE FORCE BE A SACRIFICE TO MY DARKNESS – all this unnecessary exertion, wouldn't it be nice to simply be a normal girl? _

Kunzite glared. Without a word he brought his hands up, preparing an attack. Perfect. Three days of plotting and planning had told her exactly what to do and how.

"What makes you think," snarled Mercury, "I ever wanted to be normal?"

She took aim and blasted power at Kunzite, and –

– and everything went dark. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super cruel to leave someone in that kinda prison, Kunzite.


	3. Chapter 3

When she opened her eyes, she found a mostly-bewildered Kunzite in the space, spinning around to verify his location, as though he'd only just arrived. He spotted her and glared. "How did you know I'd be back here in time?"

"Time is irrelevant in this place," said Mercury. "When I made it back here, you were already here. Honestly, Kunzite, _keep up._"

His indignance was almost laughable. "There's nothing _to_ keep up!" he blurted. "I shall have _nothing_ to do with you and I'm going to keep you here forever so that Beryl doesn't lose!"

Interesting, she thought. He must've gone to the future. A future. A possible future. One he didn't like. "You have two choices, said Mercury. You can cooperate with me, listen to me and do as I say, or you can pit your powers against mine one final time, and that will combine to get us out."

"That's – only one choice," said Kunzite. "Either way we are working together. Either way, I'm –" he broke off and sighed. "Committing an act of treason," he finished.

"Perhaps you're starting to get it," said Mercury. "I understand this a little better than you do, so let me make it painfully clear: we have to work together."

"Or what, we're both stuck here forever?"

"This _is_ already forever," said Mercury. She shook her head. "Maybe if I put this in terms you'll understand. Do you know anything of the prisoner's dilemma?"

Kunzite was agape in horror. "You," he began, but did not finish his thought.

Good; then he did know. "Interpret it thus: if we cooperate, we don't get much of a payoff, because the other still exists and we'll have to fight another day. If we don't cooperate, then either one of us has betrayed the other, or we both betray each other. If we both betray each other, then we continue to play these games whirling around in time's eddies, sinking or swimming. It's a gamble – do you think what you'll see in the future or the past will be a greater or lesser danger than I myself present? You could take that bet, Kunzite. If you feel lucky."

Mercury stepped closer to him. From this distance she had to look up to catch his eye, but something within them told her that she nevertheless had the upper hand. "_Do_ you feel lucky?"

Kunzite's expression had softened from aghast to cautious. He closed his mouth, swallowed hard, and shook his head so fast it rattled his silver strands.

"Certainly," Mercury continued, "if one of us betrays the other, the remaining one _stays_ here. And that sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Why, you'd never have to deal with that pesky Sailor Mercury again."

"If you're making a case for your own survival," said Kunzite, "you're going about it a strange way."

"The only thing I have in my arsenal is that you don't fully understand this space. You could come to an understanding of it, with me. But that's betrayal to your queen. You could exit it, with me. But that's also betrayal to your queen. If you strand me here, you'd win, after a fashion – I won't lie to you. If the future you saw is one you like, perhaps you'd better take it. Perhaps you don't need me there. Perhaps I remain stranded."

Kunzite shook his head. "No, I can tell you now, you don't." Good to hear it. "But we can't trust each other, either. I cannot agree to working with you..."

"Just like we can't trust Tuxedo Mask," said Mercury, "but we still work with him."

"He's on your side!"

"_Is_ he? Then why was he working with you?"

"He isn't!" Kunzite seemed to realise something. "Not yet."

"How heartening," said Mercury.

"I want to leave," he said. "But I don't trust you to lead me out."

"And I don't trust you to come willingly," she replied. Perhaps it was best _not_ to think about it. She turned and walked away. "_Are_ you coming?"

Mutely, Kunzite followed.

"Rather dark this way," said Mercury. "I know you have light in there somewhere. I saw you make a blade with it."

"So?"

"So, you could light our way!"

He snorted. "What's the matter, the Senshi can't see in the dark?"

But he threw up a glamour of something greenish, and it cast a dull glow against the edges of the space. The iridescence she expected – shiny blue, the exact colour of her attacks. Then it was her bubbles, and she knew exactly how to bring them home.

  
[ ](https://i.imgur.com/Dif1jXB.png)

"An _anglerfish_," said Mercury. "Really? Is that the _best_ you could do?"

Kunzite growled. "That's the best you're getting, brat!"

She supposed it was an oddly appropriate way to get them out of the Marianas Trench of hyperphysics. "You'd deserve me keeping you here."

"You can't keep me here. You need me to get out."

"And you need _me_ to get out. Unless you want to pull your dumb stunts again."

Kunzite, admonished, fell silent.

"Good." She walked on, and the anglerfish followed, its esca bobbing slowly in midair. Kunzite didn't. "Well?" she snapped. "Do you need an invitation?"

There was no origin to the space - that is, the origin was everywhere, and nowhere, at the same time. However, there were... patches, in the manifold. Local disturbances that were a little less uniform. There was a larger one not far from where they were. "Here," she said. "Stand here, and on three, I want you to try and attack me, like you did when you had me imprisoned with Sailors Moon, Jupiter, and Mars."

"Won't that just perpetuate the problem?"

"Not this time," said Mercury. "This time we're going back the way we came."

She threw up her hands in defence and counted down from three, and concentrated.

"Well? Aren't you gonna try something?" said Sailor Mars.

Behind her were Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter. The sky was a black dome, the horizon shrinking. Mercury realised she had her hands up, prepared for an attack. She quickly withdrew.

It worked, she thought.

"There's no point," she said. "He'll just absorb the powers. I won't make him more powerful than he already is."

"Then what now?" shrieked Mars. "Just lie here and let him kill us?"

"No," said Mercury. "I know it looks bad, but trust me."

After all, if Kunzite saw her in the future, he must have understood something about the supposed linearity of things. They must survive, somehow.

Not that it sounded that way. "How do you like the taste of darkness?" Kunzite taunted, barely audible through the din of his shrinking force field.

_Not very much at all_, thought Mercury.

  
  


The thing was, Kunzite had been expecting another Senshi. (It wasn't even Neptune. Damn the Senshi; there really _was_ one for every star in the sky.) Kunzite had even been expecting that Beryl would find Tuxedo Mask and try to capture him, to work with him.

Kunzite had not been expecting the fact that Beryl would kill Zoisite. Over the loss of the crystals. Or once they reformed to make the Silver Crystal. Over losing the Silver Crystal, he could nearly understand. But Beryl had killed Zoisite over a simple threat to this one man: Endymion.

Kunzite stood over Tuxedo Mask, in a chamber, as Metalia's powers attempted to permeate his will. 

_ It was a very long time ago – you pledged your life and lifetimes to me. Deeper than Beryl. _

_Do you feel lucky?_

Kunzite shook his head. "No," he said softly to himself, "I absolutely do not."


End file.
